making memories through food, wine and travel

A Delicious Time of Year

We hope that everyone is enjoying the holidays. We had a wonderful weekend complete with a visit from Santa (the kids are still besides themselves), laughter, love, family and delicious food. We’d like to start by giving a shout-out to some of our blogging friends who made our holiday all the more delicious. Unfortunately I don’t have photos of all the dishes we made, but each one was every bit as good as we hoped!

We spent Christmas Eve having a family dinner with just the four of us. We dressed-up, opened presents, ate our traditional homemade Italian dinner, followed by a tour of Christmas lights in our Christmas pajamas while we ate cookies in the car. Our meal this year featured two amazing recipes from Linda at Savoring Every Bite. The kids especially enjoyed her Calamari Pomodoro. We did too, but the kids beat us out of seconds and thirds. They love their calamari. So while the kids devoured the calamari, Mike and I enjoyed the Pasta with Pecorino Herb Walnut Sauce. (Which incidentally makes for great leftovers too!)

We kicked off Christmas day with our Maple Bacon Biscuits – every bit as good as the first time and then got ready for the festivities.

We hosted Mike’s family at our house this year and started by serving Katherine’s (Greg’s amazing other half) Baked Brie en Croute. We made ours with a fig preserve that was fabulous with the pecans and brown sugar. I can’t (and won’t) pick between Katherine’s and ChgoJohn’s brie – both were down right fantastic and have made me a little obsessed with the cheese. (Mike still can’t stand brie – but the kids and I are new found fans.)

Our main course consisted of a glazed smoked ham with a side of Butternut Squash with Shallots and Sage courtesy of Baker by Nature. We made a few slight adaptations – we added garlic and topped with crushed pecans. This was delicious and one dish of leftovers that I won’t feel guilty about devouring.

We also served a side of scalloped potatoes featured a while back on Sweet Caroline’s blog. They were worth the wait. Unfortunately they were mostly eaten by the time I remembered to take a picture, so we’re gunna leave that one to the imagination.

We also used a dessert recipe from Baker by Nature. This one was for Ashley’s Cranberry Eggnog Muffins. We had never tried anything close to this recipe before, so it was fun to make (and really easy!). The kids, especially, have been a big fan of these gems.

So again, many thanks to our fellow bloggers – those featured here and otherwise – you have made our lives all the more delicious. And now on to our recipe for the day…a Raspberry Tart – because we all need a little more dessert before the New Year’s resolutions kick in.

First we prepared our crust. We followed the same recipe that we used for our lemon tarts which features lemon zest, cream cheese and vanilla.

We rolled out the crust, large enough for our 9-inch tart pan.

Then we rubbed a bit of butter over the crust and sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar and sliced almonds.

Next we mixed together our tart filling of raspberries, sugar, flour and cream and poured it over the crust.

We used fresh raspberries, but frozen would work as well although the amount of flour may need to be increased to help absorb some of the extra liquid.

The raspberry tart baked for 45 minutes at 375F. The crust was golden brown and the raspberry filling was good and set.

Now if you have been following the blog for a while, you know how we feel about our berry cobblers, pies and tarts. This dish was unquestionably a four spoon dessert.

It’s one of those dishes that we have to make sure we cut equitably…because we’re all paying attention. Especially Mr. N. You don’t get between him and his berry desserts.

Happy Holidays to everyone! We hope you’re enjoying a relaxing week filled with fun and good eats. Stay tuned later this week when we’ll have an interactive and fun poll for a special day. 🙂

ummm… i have thought about this for a few minutes and I am pretty sure that tart could not look any prettier nor be any more tempting. I am just drooling looking at it not to mention the rest of your dishes- i know one family who ate well for sure:)

Glad you and your family had a wonderful Christmas, Kristy. You sure made a lot of amazing sounding (and looking) dishes – I can’t possibly comment on one specific one for fear of leaving one out, although the maple bacon biscuits gets a big thumbs up from me – That’s definitely something I’ll be trying in the new year. The berry pie looks fab too 🙂 You night-time Christmas light viewing sounds wonderful… my parents used to do a similar thing with my sister and I and we’d sit in the back of the car with a hot-water bottle and blankets… fun times 🙂

Your raspberry tart is so beautiful that Eva and I spent a good 5 minutes talking about it at dinner yesterday. I know that she is planning to make it this week, and I’m going to add it to my list of things to try in the new year. My computer keeps crashing, so here’s hoping that this comment finally sticks. Enjoy the rest of the holidays with your family! We are on a weird school schedule this year in Ontario and the kids don’t go back until the second week of January.

Hi Kristy! Wow, you sure were busy! That all looks so splendid! I also love that you have Italian food on Christmas eve and do a Christmas lights tour in PJs – ah glorious. Wishing you, Mike, Mr N and Miss A a most fantastic new year! x

All of your dishes look absolutely amazing.. and that tart.. oh Kristy that tart lol. Yes, can you tell I’m drooling now lol. I LOVE IT. I’m glad you guys had such an amazing Christmas :).. and I hope the kids enjoyed their gifts 🙂

Well, that certainly was one great-looking dinner you served! Thanks for the shout-out and your use of the fig preserves with brie sounds delicious. I have to try that myself. Your tart, also, looks delicious. So bright & fresh-looking. Continued happiness throughout the rest of the holidays, Kristy!

What a wonderful holiday dinner you had!! Thanks for the mention and it made me so happy to see you enjoyed the dishes! It was just me and the kids too, but regardless all was fancy as if we were entertaining the entire family! I’m loving that tart, it looks perfect for New Years, the red color is stunning.

What a great post Kristy – I was particularly taken by your description of Christmas Eve…viewing the Christmas lights in pjs while eating cookies in the car – perfect! And what a feast you put together here… i enjoyed reading about the various dishes you sampled and seeing the visuals. Your raspberry tart looks sensational – love the floor of almonds and how you sprinkled some intact raspberries over the filling – so pretty and no doubt delicious…!

I hope you’re enjoying the holidays Kristy – we are off to the ski hill this morning! 🙂

We love our pj drive. 🙂 The kids were all snuggled up in blankets in the backseat eating their cookies. We have xmas music on the radio and drive around to find our favorite light displays – and our least favorite. LOL! It was a great holiday…and tomorrow we have another Christmas at my mom’s! Woo hoo! This time I’m bring some healthy appetizers though…I’m about stuffed full at this point. 😉 Have a great time skiing! That sounds like a blast! I think Mike and I are going ice skating tonight…first time in years. Should be interesting. Ha!

I agree, what a fantastic holiday feast! I’m impressed you made all those dishes in a short amount of time! I’d be too tired to host by the end of the day! I agree, we all could use a little more dessert before the year ends! The tart is so pretty and the redish pink color is so vibrant! Glad you had a wonderful Christmas and hope you have a fantastic New Year! 🙂

I pretty much spend all day Christmas Eve and Christmas afternoon cooking, but I have to say, I love it. It’s my favorite thing to do at the holidays. Especially our Christmas Eve dinner for the four of us. It’s definitely more food than we need for two days, but the leftovers feed us for the week which means a few days off of cooking. 😉 Happy holidays Lisa!

It’s just been so warm here for this time of year. I don’t mind as I’ve been able to keep up with my running, but I have to admit it felt a little weird to have a green Christmas. I hope you like the tart Eva. We certainly enjoyed it. 🙂

The Christmas pajama drive tradition started when Mr. N was little. At the time we used it as a way to get him to fall asleep (his excitement for Santa was keeping him up). Then it just turned into something we enjoyed doing every year – it’s probably my favorite part of the night (next to the dinner of course!). 🙂

I’m so glad you made the scalloped potatoes! I told my mom and she was so, so happy!! I love that you tried a bunch of different dishes from various bloggers–such a great idea. Sounds like you all had a fantastic weekend. I seriously need to make those maple bacon biscuits ASAP! 🙂

Tell your mom that we loved them and thanks for sharing her recipe. I didn’t have a scalloped potato recipe, but now I do! 🙂 We had a great weekend – and are still enjoying the festivities. 🙂 Hope your week is going well too!

Thanks Sally! Happy holidays to you as well. The pasta is fantastic, and I swear the leftovers are just as good, if not better. Mike and I had some for dinner tonight after we put the kids to bed. Mmmm. So good. And Santa’s visit was fantastic – the look on their faces makes my holiday complete. 🙂 Hope you’re enjoying AZ. I miss it out there. 🙂

That looks like an amazing meal. I was especially drawn to the squid in tomato sauce. My local chinese grocery store sells squid rings for a fairly reasonable price. I’ve tempura’d and batter fried in the past but never tried the rings like this so I”ll have to give them a try.

We’ve had them at restaurants like this before, but until now had only fried or baked them in tempura at home. This was a great change-up. I was nervous the kids wouldn’t like them without the tempura, but they are still big fans. 🙂 I hope you had a fantastic holiday Maria!

Thank you for the kind thought, Kristy. It was a quiet time for me as I’m on my own while my mom is off for physiotherapy. Hopefully, she will be strong enough to be back on her feet soon and can come home.

It sounds like you and your family had a great time. Have a great New Year. 🙂 I was overwhelmed by all the cookie and dessert recipes so it’s nice to see some mains and sides.

Mike hates brie and you still did two baked bries in recent months? Hee, hee. I’m glad you liked it, I think your flowers look great. And we usually have fig preserves, I need to try using it that way. Linda’s calamari looks amazing, so does everything else you made.

Two baked bries in a week. LOL. Fortunately I had friends to help me devour the first one (and Mr. N) and family around to help to dig in to the second. The fig preserves were fantastic with it. 🙂 I don’t know that the flowers were as good as yours, but they sure were a fun decorative touch. Despite his hatred of brie, Mike thought my flowers were cute. 😉

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Having returned from our 7-month European sabbatical, we're returning to the kitchens and neighborhoods in our own backyard with a focus on culture, education, history and delicious food. #EatPlayWorld

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